4 Answers
4

Ubuntu can have an MTA (providing SMTP services), but actual installation is configuration dependent. You can use sudo apt-get install postfix to install a popular and well regarded mail handler. Be warned, running a poorly configured SMTP service can cause problems.

Keep in mind that installing the postfix package is not even close to everything you need to do to get a working email to the Internet. If you are on a home connection, or firewalled business connection then delivery to anything outside of your own box is almost certainly blocked.
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ZoredacheMay 26 '11 at 21:09

I am trying to send mail from a ruby on rails program. I am invoking their library for sending mail, and it works fine, and tries to send it, but nothing gets sent. So I figured it might be my SMTP
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GenadinikMay 26 '11 at 19:55

This is misleading. Your mail client has a configuration to allow it to interact with an SMTP server, but those clients do not (themselves) act as an SMTP server. The OP is actually needing a SMTP Server to process his application generated emails.
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OldTrollMay 26 '11 at 20:54

When I needed to send data from a php based system I had a look around and I found a really useful how on this blog, as I was sending from an internal server to our internal smtp server I just had to do step 1.